STATE OF CALAMITY. A dead hog in the Municipality of Hamtic is to be buried by its owner in an undated photo. Antique Provincial Veterinary Office head of the Public Health Division Dr. Marco Rafael Ardamil said on Friday (June 23, 2023) that Hamtic municipal council during their special session on June 22 placed their municipality under a state of calamity due to African swine fever. (Photo courtesy of Gali Magbanua)
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – The Municipal Council of Hamtic on Thursday placed their town under a state of calamity due to confirmed African swine fever (ASF) cases.
Antique Provincial Veterinary (ProVet) office head of the Public Health Division Dr. Marco Rafael Ardamil said in an interview Friday that the declaration was made after they received the confirmation of ASF from the Department of Agriculture-Regional Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (DA-RADDL).
He said that he still has no information as to how much will be the calamity fund to be allocated to assist the hog raisers, but that these will be in the form of indemnification since the ProVet and Municipal Agriculture Office (MAO) has started the depopulation of 30 infected hogs at the University of Antique (UA) in Hamtic.
UA Hamtic, which is in Barangay Guintas, is offering college courses majoring in Animal Science and Crop Science which is why it had been raising around 100 hogs as part of the students' lessons.
“We depopulated the 30 remaining hogs of UA Hamtic using electric stunner,” Ardamil said.
He said they are also requesting the Department of Agriculture (DA) Regional Office 6 for additional manpower and test kits as they also need to depopulate in the other barangays that have ASF cases.
DA Regional Executive Director Jose Albert Barrogo, who was asked about the request of the ProVet, said that they are now coordinating for the test kits.
“We have 63 units of test kits set to be delivered to the DA Regional Office and some of it will be given to Antique,” he said.
Barrogo said that they are also providing technical assistance to Antique, particularly to the Hamtic LGU, which is doing its best to contain the virus.
The DA official said that with the confirmed ASF cases in Hamtic, Antique, all six provinces in Western Visayas have now been penetrated by the virus.
Meanwhile, Hamtic Municipal Agriculture Officer Isidro Ramos said that as of June 21 there are already 1,787 hog mortalities in the 28 barangays of the municipality.
He also said that the total damage incurred due to hog mortality is PHP16,977,500 as reported by the 362 affected hog raisers.
He said that together with the ProVet and the augmented personnel from DA, they will conduct a test and destroy scheme where the healthy hogs will be separated from the infected ones so these could still be slaughtered and sold within the barangay.
“We need additional test kits because of the test and destroy scheme that we will implement,” he said. (PNA)
